MEDICAL ASSISTANT
TRAINING
What Does a Medical Assistant Do? Do you like the idea of playing an important
role in a healthcare facility? Do you want to perform both administrative and clinical tasks?
You’re in luck! As a medical assistant, you can have a rewarding and challenging career
and be a vital part of a healthcare team! With the right amount of theoretical and practical
training, you’ll be ready to work in nearly any healthcare setting.
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Are you Ready to:
Ì Start a high-demand medical assisting career?
Ì Grow in a career that is flexible and family-friendly?
Ì Experience the opportunity and reward of being employed in the health care industry, one of the nation’s
fastest-growing industries?
If you answered yes to even one of the above questions, this short, yet informative medical assisting career
eBook was created especially for you. Keep reading and learn why a career as a medical assistant may be
the perfect fit for you.
Medical Assisting Career Facts and Stats from the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS)
Ì Employment is expected to grow by 31 percent from 2010 to 2020, much faster than the average for all
occupations. Demand will stem from physicians hiring more medical assistants to do routine administrative
and clinical duties so that physicians can see more patients.
Ì Job seekers who want to work as a medical assistant should find excellent job prospects.
Ì Increasing use of medical assistants to allow doctors to care for more patients will further stimulate job
growth.
Ì Medical assistants are projected to account for a very large number of new jobs, and many other
opportunities will come from the need to replace workers leaving the occupation.
Ì Medical assistants with formal training or experience, particularly those with certification, should have the
best job opportunities.
How to Become a Medical Assistant
Are you considering a career as a medical assistant? Smart move. In fact,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs in the health care sector are
projected to increase as much as 34 percent in the next decade. The field of
medical assisting is equally promising with an expected employment growth
of 31 percent through 2020 and demand increasing from doctors needing
more medical assistants to handle administrative and clinical duties.
With so much opportunity, the time to train for your new medical assistant
career is now. Whether you’re currently working full time, juggling a family
or all of the above, getting the proper training you need is 100% possible.
Here’s how to become a medical assistant in three steps:
1. Choose an Online Medical Assisting School
Starting a new career when you already have a day job and responsibilities
is challenging, but not impossible if you choose the right online medical
assisting school. First, look for a nationally accredited medical assisting
program. Second, make sure the course is offered 100% online with 24/7
course access so you can study around your schedule. Next, make sure the
curriculum is comprehensive with both administrative and clinical training, as
physicians desire their staff to possess the full medical assisting skill set.
Here are some other important benefits your training program should
include:
Ì Live support
Ì Competitive tuition with financial assistance options, including interest-free
payment plans
Ì Certification exam preparation
Ì Externship experience
2. Reinforce Your Skills with a Medical Assisting Externship
Experience
Completing your medical assisting class is a major accomplishment. Now
put your new found skills to good use in a real medical setting with an externship. If
you chose the right online medical assisting school, your program should include an
externship experience. Additionally, the school should make all necessary externship
experience arrangements on your behalf.
Your externship can take place in a physician’s office, medical facility, hospital and
more, lasting approximately four to eight weeks. By the end of your externship,
you’ll have en edge over the competition and the attention of prospective employers
because you’ll have something on your resume most new medical industry job
applicants lack – Experience.
3. Take Your Certification Exam and Become a Registered Medical
Assistant
Once you complete your externship, you should feel pretty confident. And that’s
exactly the right state of mind for the next, vital step in starting your medical assisting
career –Taking the RMA certification exam. The RMA exam is offered by The American
Medical Technologists (AMT), a nonprofit certification agency and professional
membership association representing over 46,000 individuals in allied health care.
The 200 question, three hour exam covers general, administrative and clinical skills.
Although medical assistants are not required by law to take the certification exam, a
registered medical assistant will have access to greater salary and job advancement
opportunities.
Starting your medical assisting career is more attainable than you think. Take the
first step by researching online medical assisting schools and start your training now.
Before you know it, you’ll be an integral part of the growing health care industry.
Medical Assistant Externship –
An Overview
One of the best ways to learn about something is through hands-on experience.
For students of an online medical assisting program, this is accomplished with
an externship.
Your externship is the point at which you move from student to medical assistant.
Your transition will serve as a way to fine-tune the skills you learned in class by
working in an actual medical office. Most externships are unpaid, but provide
you with the tools you need to feel confident in your ability to be a medical
assistant. An externship is like an internship, only shorter as it is the last step in
your training.
During your stay in a medical office, the externship site supervisor will offer a
written evaluation of your work, attitude and performance in general. They will
also provide feedback on how reliable you are and how well you perform each
task. It is important to ensure you receive a good evaluation, as this will be a
determining factor in whether you will be able to sit for the Registered Medical
Assistant (RMA) exam.
You likely perform duties such as:
Ì OTJ Activities and/or Externship Exposure
Ì Scheduling appointments, filing, and answering phones
Ì Learning patient flow (time management skills)
Ì Working with electronic health records or electronic medical records
Ì Assisting with prescriptions
Ì Learning about patient education
Ì Obtaining vital signs
Ì Performing patient assessments and being able to room patients efficiently
Ì Performing EKGs–if applicable
Ì Managing and ordering supplies
Ì Cleaning, sterilizing, and preparing instruments
Ì Practicing aseptic techniques
Ì Giving injections and immunizations–if applicable
Ì Assisting in patient exams
Ì Assisting in minor surgery–if applicable
Ì Practicing phlebotomy /venipuncture–if applicable
Once you have successfully completed your externship, it is a good idea to leave
copies of your résumé with the office manager, just in case a job opportunity pops
up. You can also ask them to refer you to anyone they know who might need help
as well.
Now that you have a clearer understanding of the value of completing a medical
assisting externship, make sure you choose a training program that will assist you
with this process. It’s the smart way to launch your new medical assisting career!
Medical Assisting and the “People Person”
Personality
In many jobs, you train to develop the necessary skills required to perform your
duties. However, some careers require skills that simply come naturally to you. For
example, as a medial assistant, you need to be a people person. The joy of helping
people who are in pain or who have a particular health issue should come naturally
to one in this field.
Just like the doctors and medical facilities you will work for, medical assistants are
surrounded by people all day. Even more, you will be the first face a patient sees
in the exam room. Your demeanor and attitude are as evident as the sleeves on
your arms; if you love what you’re doing it will show, and if not that will show, too.
Bad days can and do happen, but with a smile on your face you can make the
appointment for a worried patient much better.
As a medical assistant, you can listen to your patients while taking their vitals and
recording health history information. This simple act can help put a patient’s mind
at ease, especially if they are sensitive to those things typically found in a doctor’s
office. The smell of medicines and disinfectants, white doctors’ coats and jars of
things to poke and prod with can induce clinical phobia in some patients. Having a
friendly, caring medical assistant makes all the difference for these people.
With compassionate empathy, a bright smile and an ear to listen, you will let patients
know you’re treating them like people first, regardless of what they are seeing the
doctor for.
Health care will generate over three million new jobs through the
decade, which is more than any other industry (BLS). This includes the
exciting field of medical assisting. Are you ready for the challenge?
Allied’s all-inclusive, online medical assisting training is all you need
to study from home on your own schedule. Successfully complete your
course and be prepared to take the RMA examination.
Allied Student Benefits
Student Focused
Ì 100% Online, 24/7 Access
Ì Live Support
Ì Flexible Study for Busy Schedules
Ì Finish Quicker and Start You Career Sooner
High Quality Education
Ì Nationally Accredited
Ì Approved by the American Medical Technologist (AMT)
Association
Ì Comprehensive Curriculum
Competitive Tuition
Ì No Unnecessary Filler Courses that Inflate Tuition Cost –
No General Ed Classes to Hold You Back!
Ì Interest-Free Payment Plan Available
Ì No Additional Fees – Your Tuition Includes Everything
You Need
Career Preparation
Ì Hands On Externship in a real medical setting
Ì Externship coordinator secures medical assisting externship in
student’s community
Ì Résumé, Cover Letter and Interview Prep
Get the support and encouragement you deserve with Allied by your side throughout
each step of your training program.
Visit www.medicalaa.com to learn more about Allied’s online,
self-paced training or call 8 8 8 - 8 2 2 - 2 9 2 3.
All employment and salary statistics, projections, and
information where “(BLS)” is indicated was collected from
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website. Information may
be verified by visiting http://www.bls.gov/.